Editorial: Patrick Fitzgerald’s historic corruption fight
If you’re in politics, anywhere in politics, and have a little tainted baggage hidden in the closet, can you imagine any phone call you less want to take than that of Patrick Fitzgerald?
In more than a decade as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Fitzgerald amassed a record for the office that sets a standard for independence, determination and, above all, commitment to the law.
The list of officials he took on includes the most powerful names in Illinois politics, both behind the scenes and center stage. George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich, William Cellini, Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, Ed Vrdolyak and countless others. He went after mobsters. He put former Sun-Times Publisher and media mogul Conrad Black behind bars. Allegations of torturing confessions out of innocent suspects pursued Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge for years until he was fired in 1993, but it was Fitzgerald who, more than a decade later, stuck with the case after the statute of limitations had run out and managed to get a conviction and prison term for Burge on charges of lying about his activities.
Even before coming to Illinois, Fitzgerald had earned a national reputation for his involvement in prosecutions of would-be terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York and of al-Qaida and its then-little-known leader Osama bin Laden in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
His tenure here and his tactics were not without controversy. Scott Fawell, the imprisoned former aide to former-Gov. George Ryan, complained bitterly about what he saw as Fitzgerald’s abuse of power in threatening to prosecute Fawell’s girlfriend if he didn’t testify against his former boss. Critics on the political right and left questioned his heavy-handed approach as special prosecutor to the case against then-White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the CIA leak scandal.
But his commitment to rooting out corruption and upholding the law was never questioned.
An unfortunate by-product in Illinois of Fitzgerald’s diligence is a reputation for corruption that frequently made the state the butt of late-night television jokes and syndicated snickers. But of course it is not Fitzgerald’s prosecutions but the corruption itself that put Illinois in the spotlight. And let’s be fair, the state’s politicians hardly were known for their selfless devotion to public service before Fitzgerald’s arrival.
More important, his efforts put Illinois politicians and their staffs on notice that their behavior is being scrutinized, and they may contribute to a cleaner state government. They undoubtedly figured into legislative reforms aimed at keeping Illinois leaders honest and focused on the people’s business rather than the interests of the rich and powerful.
We owe Fitzgerald’s decade-plus of service in Illinois to another Fitzgerald from the state. Former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, no relation to the U.S. attorney, nominated Patrick Fitzgerald, and he assumed the post on Sept. 1, 2001. He leaves the office as the longest-serving U.S. attorney ever in Chicago. A lot of politicians wish he’d been replaced long ago. Those of us who long for clean government in Illinois may well lament that he could not stay on longer.